


Welcome to Spidey's

by Ketlingr



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-03
Updated: 2019-02-03
Packaged: 2019-10-21 13:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17643401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ketlingr/pseuds/Ketlingr
Summary: “Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”The day those words had appeared on Tony’s skin, he had been heartbroken. They were the most boring, generic words, nowhere near the romantic or exciting or even hilarious quotes his schoolmates boasted on their forearms.





	Welcome to Spidey's

♥ 0 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?” 

The day those words had appeared on Tony’s skin, he had been heartbroken. They were the most boring, generic words, nowhere near the romantic or exciting or even hilarious quotes his schoolmates boasted on their forearms. Tony had taken to wearing long sleeves the moment he’d first entered school, much to the mockery of his peers. After his first few years, his schoolmates were collectively much older than him, but still not above speculating out loud whether the words on his skin were that embarrassing, or he was simply ashamed to admit that he still didn’t have any. Perhaps he’d never get any, short as he was, perhaps there was simply no soulmate there for him? 

 

♥ 4 ♥

Tony had never been much of a walker, but ever since his quote had appeared on his arm, he’d walked through every street of his home town, trying to find “Spidey’s”. What an odd name for a place. There wasn’t much he knew about his soulmate from the words he’d been given. He knew that whoever it was was sixteen years, eight months and seven days younger than him, because that was when Tony had gotten his words. That was when his soulmate had been born with Tony’s words already on his arm. Which also meant that there was no point in looking for them yet, the kid was what… four? He wasn’t going to find them. Similarly, there was no point in searching for whatever Spidey’s was. Maybe the place didn’t even exist yet, and if it did, surely they didn’t have a small child working there. But Tony couldn’t help the inner drive to find the place. It was going to be hard enough to find the right person there eventually, with a generic phrase like that, he might as well keep an eye on the place as soon as he could. 

 

♥ 5 ♥

At twenty-one, Tony moved to New York. Now this was a place with all sorts of weird-sounding cafés and restaurants. If there was a Spidey’s anywhere, it was here. His soulmate was five. Still no chance of finding them. And eventually, Tony stopped looking, too. Life as an adult was busy, and the idea of finding his soulmate had lost its romantic appeal once Tony was no longer in the grasp of puberty. Having strings of lovers surely was preferable to being tied down anyway, and honestly, an age difference of almost seventeen years was quite a hard pill to swallow. Usually, soulmates weren’t that far apart. Better not to bother before he creeped the kid out. 

 

♥ 16 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?” 

… 

“Sir?” 

“Excuse me,” Tony said, and left the place in a rush. He didn’t know what he had expected. The person greeting him had been much to old, probably in his mid-twenties. Still, Tony was disappointed that nothing had happend. No tingling, no numbness, none of the feelsy crap people claimed happened when they met their soulmate and heard their first words spoken. It was all bullshit anyway. 

Tony pulled up his sleeve and looked at his arm. Unchanged, the black lines glared up at him. Since when did he even care? Well, he thought, since he’d left his apartment this morning and spotted the café a few streets down and slightly off his usual morning route. He cursed and continued on his way, picking up his usual coffee at the usual spot. 

 

♥ 17 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?” 

It had been three weeks since Tony had dared to return. He had made up his mind. Whether or not he cared about soulmates, on the other end of these words was a teenager, and as unlikely as it was that they were working on their seventeenth birthday, they deserved to be spared the disappointment of a soulmate who didn’t give a shit. Tony could at least pretend. 

“Hey, uh… a… just… one coffee, please?” He really hadn’t thought this through very well. Sure, he’d picked the only cashier who seemed to be the right age, he’d decided to get his morning coffee at this place - hopefully it wasn’t going to be terrible - but he’d completely messed up his greeting. What if this was his soulmate? Did that poor kid have to walk around with those words inked into her skin from the day she was born? “Hey, uh a just one coffee, please?” Shit, Tony was almost glad she wasn’t his soulmate, for her sake. 

 

♥ 18 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

“Hey, I love that sweater. A coffee and one of those bagels, please?” Tony smiled, he didn’t even mind anymore that there was no magic spark, no sign of recognition. Today’s cashier was handsome, he was new, and he was not Tony’s soulmate. Big deal. 

“Hey, Mister Stark!” 

“Hey, Janine, how are you doing? How’s school?” Tony couldn’t believe she still worked here. It had been over a year, and she was still his favourite cashier. Barista, she had corrected him once, when he’d called her a cashier, and admonished Tony for never giving her a chance to show her what a talented one she was. Tony had laughed and promised her she could make him a fancy long-named beverage some day, but so far he’d only ever ordered a regular coffee and the occasional bagel. 

They exchanged some small talk until Tony had payed for his order and left. In the fifteen months since Spidey’s had become his new morning stop, he’d never gotten a bad morning coffee, and every so often he even came back for an evening coffee, too.

 

♥ 19 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

“That’s a gorgeous necklace! A coffee, please.”  
“Wow, I love your tattoo, man. Can I get a coffee and one of those cream cheese bagels?”  
“Hey, great bowtie. One coffee and - oh, what’s on those, bacon? Gimme two.”  
“Ha, I’ve got the same sweater at home!”  
“Love your taste in sweaters!”  
“Man, that sweater looks cozy.”  
“I love that song, did you choose the music today?”  
“Love your haircolour!”

 

♥ 20 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

“Hey, I love that necklace. Just a coffee, please.” Sure, he was recycling a little, but Tony had run out of unsuspicious first words to say. He didn’t want to be a creep, so a lot of things were just inappropriate to say, but he also didn’t want his soulmate to have suffered boring first words for the first twenty years of their life. So Tony had settled for nice but polite, compliments or interesting small talk, words that showed he cared or appreciated his soulmate. Words that child might be happy about, a teenager might lie awake and dream about, an adult might smile about. 

 

♥ 20 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

“Is that scarf handmade? Looks amazing.”

“Yeah, I made it. It’s perfect for weather like this, even looking at it makes me cold,” the barista chuckled and bristled. Tony agreed and pulled a face. 

“Eh, one coffee please, and… you know what, give me a cinnamon roll today, I feel adventurous.” 

“Sure thing, Mister Stark,” the barista prepared his coffee and picked the largest cinnamon roll they had while Tony paid and tipped him. “Stay warm out there.” 

“Actually,” Tony said, throwing a look outside, “I think I might stay a little. Maybe it’ll stop snowing in the meantime.” 

“Take your pick.” Following the barista’s gesture with his eyes, Tony huffed. The café was mostly empty, no surprise in this weather. He took a seat in an oversized armchair and looked around. In the handful of years he’d been coming here, he had never really taken the time to actually look at the place. There were some black and white photographs on the wall, styled to look like the usual “this famous person ate at our restaurant” type of photos, but they all showed fictional characters shaking hands with the same young man. 

“Who’s that guy in the pictures?” Tony asked. Probably some actor he was supposed to know. 

“Huh? Oh that’s Pete. He owns the place, I’m surprised you’ve never met him. He’s not here a lot - honestly, you’re probably here more often than him - but I would’ve thought you’d met him by now.” 

Tony raised his eyebrows at the pictures, the guy looked pretty young to be owning a café, but then again, if anyone knew about owning a business young it was probably Tony himself. 

 

♥ 22 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

“Oh no, what happened to your hand?” The barista laughed, slightly embarrassed, and looked down at the cast around their left hand and arm. 

“Skateboarding accident. It’s not too bad, although I wished it wouldn’t have happened right before my first day here…”

“Yeah, can imagine,” Tony agreed and smiled. Once again, he was kind of glad that he hadn’t met his soulmate this morning. Those were terrible first words. To wonder for twenty-two years what was going to happen to your hand one day? Geez… 

 

♥ 25 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

“Hey, Susan, just the usual, coffee and bagel, please. New lipstick? That colour looks great on you.” 

“Aw, thanks, you always notice things, Mister Stark. Coffee’s on the house, but don’t tell anyone. Don’t you dare protest, you look like you need it, and you’re always so nice to everyone, making the new guys feel comfortable and all? You deserve it.” Tony smiled at her and put the money for the coffee in the tip jar instead. The days on which there were no new baristas were the good ones, he had noticed that a long time ago. No excitement, no disappointment. Sometimes the new baristas were the wrong age, but Tony made sure to say something nice to them anyway. It had become a habit, not just at Spidey’s but wherever he went. He tried to find things about people that stood out and compliment them. It made people feel good. It made Tony feel like a less shitty person. 

 

♥ 26 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”  
“I’m beyond help, but a coffee would be nice.” 

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”  
“Some sunshine, if you have any, but I’ll take a coffee, too. It’s freezing out.” 

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”  
“Coffeecoffeecoffee… just one though. Thanks.” 

 

♥ 27 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

“Two coffees please.”

 

♥ 27 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

“Hey, uh… a coffee and -” Tony looked down at the note he’d made, because he really couldn’t afford to show up with another black coffee again. “- a vanilla soy latte, please. Cute hat.” He smiled at the barista, then checked his note again, just in case. 

 

♥ 28 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

“Hang on, Pep, I gotta order - sorry, one coffee please.” 

 

♥ 29 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

“One coffee and one vanilla soy latte, please. And a bagel, uh - that one, yes, thanks.” 

 

♥ 30 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

The kid was much too young. 

“Hey, that’s a cool button, is that Captain America? Nice. Uhm, two coffee, please. One regular, one vanilla soy latte.” 

Thirty years… thirty years since he’d first read those words on his arm. Twenty-four since he’d first set foot into this place. He’d missed it, Tony thought. He’d probably missed his chance. Whoever his soulmate was probably had a steady job by now, or perhaps there was an entirely different place called Spidey’s somewhere in… Seattle or… Vancouver. Who knew. 

Plus, he had Pepper now. She’d seen the words, and of course she wasn’t terribly happy he was still going here, but he’d promised her it was just out of habit. He couldn’t expect to find his soulmate after all this time. Pepper herself had never told him what had happened to her soulmate, but her lines were pale and white, like scars, so Tony knew they had either met, or her soulmate had died before they had the chance. Tony’s own quote was still as dark and inky as ever. 

 

♥ 35 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

“Just… just a coffee, please, Dan.” 

He didn’t even have the energy to be nice, and of course Dan noticed. It wasn’t like Tony tried to hide it. He didn’t have the energy for that, either. 

“I’m sorry, Mister Stark. Coffee’s on the house.” 

“It’s fine,” Tony lied and gave the young man a weak smile. “I never liked vanilla anyway.” 

 

♥ 36 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

“Hey, I love your sweater. Gorgous colour. Can I have one coffee and that lonely cream cheese bagel over there, please?” 

Being alone wasn’t all that bad. 

 

♥ 37 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

All good things had to come to an end. Spidey’s was seeing less and less customers every day, and Tony had personally had a hand in finding former baristas new jobs. A part of him debated helping the business out financially, but another, perhaps more selfish and tired part was glad that the café seemed to be closing. It was time for this madness to end, for his fruitless search for some romanticised ideal of a partner. 

“Just a coffee, please.” 

 

♥ 38 ♥

“Hey, Tony. Welcome back to Spidey’s, how may I help you?” The young woman’s smirked at him, rolling her eyes at the phrase. 

“How are you doing, Helen, are you working every day now?” Tony leaned over to look at the bagel selection. 

“Yeah, there’s only like… four of us left, and the boss - he’s even taking over shifts now. Things aren’t looking too great, I’m afraid, but you know that. Not everyone is as loyal a customer as you.” She grinned and he huffed a small laugh. 

 

♥ 38 ♥

“Welcome to Spidey’s, how may I help you?”

Tony stared. 

Fuck. Shit. No. 

He couldn’t say those things out loud. That would be horrible. His arm was on fire in the most pleasant way, tingling and burning up and down from his wrist to his elbow. 

“Sir?”

He’s seen that face before… where had he seen that face before? 

“Sir, are you alright?” 

Tony looked over at the wall, at the man’s face grinning back at him, so much younger, and yet no less stunning. Tony didn’t think, he felt like his knees were going to give in any moment. After all this time… Tony shook his head and smiled the most relieved smile of his life. 

“I can’t believe I’ve finally found you.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, headcanons time - how do you think Peter became owner of the café? Answer may follow... ;)


End file.
